Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1887-01-13
Helena, Montana. Thursday, January 1:3, 1887.

UdITel VI Tue dNeTttSe IlllleE Was Ulle WOTk OI
brief hour on Saturday nights, but the daily
replenishment of the average miner with whs-
Ky was arduous and incessant. Roscommon
spent more time behind his bar than his gro
GERS counter. Add to this the fact that long
shed-like extension or wing bore the legend,
Cosmopolitan Hotel, Board or Lodging by
the Day or Week NJ. Roscommon," +" and you
got an idea of the variety of the proprietor's
functions. The "hotel," however, was more
directly under the charge of Mrs. Roscom-
mon, lady Of thirty years, strong, truculent
and good-hearted.
Mr.. Roscommon had early adopted the
theory that most Of his customers were in
sane, and were to be alternately bullied or
placated, as the case might be. Nothing that
occurred, no extravaganza of speech nor act,
ever ruffied his equilibrium, which was as
dogged and stubborn as it was outwardly
calm. When not serving liquor, or in the in
terval while it was being drank, he was al
ways wrping his counter with an exceedingly
dirty towel-or indeed anything that came
handy. Miners, noticing this purely perfume
tory habit, occasionally supplied him silly
with articles inconsistent with their service
fragments Of their shirts and underclothing,
-four sacking, tow, and once with a flannel
petticoat of his wife's stolen from the
line in the back yard. Roscopmon would
continue his wiping without looking up, but
yet conscious Of the presence of each customer
"And it's not another dhrop yell git, Jack
Brown, until ye've wiped out the black score
that stands agin ye" "And it's there ye are,
darlint, and it's here's the bottle that's been
lukin' for ye sins Saturday" "And fwhot
hev you done with the last I sent We, We divil
of a McCorkle, and heres me back that's bruk
entiorely wild dipping Until the pork barl to
Civ We the best sides, and ye spending yur last
cint on a tare into Gihoy. Whist nd if it's
fer foighting we are, boys, there's an ILL
CANT bit of sod beyant the corral, and it may
be meself II come out with shtick and be
sociable."
On this particular day, however, Mr.. Ros-
common was not in his usual spirits and when
the clatter Of horses hoofs before the door
announced the approach of strangers, he alb
solutely ceased wiping his counter and looked
up as DR.. Guild, the president and secretary
of the new company strobe into the shop.
I'VE are looking" said the president, 'for
a man by the name Of Wiles, ard thret
Mexicans known as Pedro, Manuel and
Miguel"
"Ye are!'
ave are"
"Faix, and hope yell foind em And if
yell git from 'em the score I've got agin 'em,
darlint, III add blessing to it."
There was laugh at this from the by
ISLANDERS, who, somehow, resented the intru-
sion of these strangers.
II fear you will find it no laughing matter,
gentlemen" said Dr. Guild, little stifly,
'when tell you that a murder has been COM
mitted, and the men 1 am seeking within an
hour of that murder put up that notice signed
by Their nanes," and DR.. Guild displayed the
paper
There was breathless silence among the
crowd as they eagerly pressed around the
doctor Only Roscommon kept on wiping his
counter.
"You will observe, gentlemen, that the
name of Roscommon also appears on this
paper as one of the original locaters."
@And sure, darlint, said Roscommon, with
out looking up, "if ye've no better ividence
agin thin boys than you have forninst me, its
home ye'd betther be riding to wanst. For
it's meself as hasn't stirred fut out of the store
the day and noight-more betoken as the boys
I've sarved kin testify"
"That's so; Ross right" chorused the
crowd. We've been running the old man all
night"
Then how comes your name on this
paper!"
20 murdher! will ye listen to him. hoys'
As if every felly that owed me whisky bill
didn't come to me and say: AN, .Misther
Roscommon,' or 'Moike,' as the case
might be, sure it's an ilighant sthrike I've
made this day, and it's meself that has put
down your name as an original locator, and
yer fortunes made Mr.. Roscommon, and will
yer I'LL me up another quart for the good
luck betune you and me. Ah, but csk Jack
Brown over yam if it isn't sick that l am of
his original locations"
The laugh that followed this speech, and its
application, convinced the party that
they had blundered, that they could obtain
no clew to the real culprits here, and that any
attempt by threats would meet violent oppo-
sition. Nevertheless the doctor was persistent:
"When did you see these men Lasts"
"When did see them, is it? Bedad, what
with sarvin up the h9uor and keeping me
counters dry and swate, never see them at
ALL"
"That's so, Ross" "chorused the crowd again,
to whom the whole proceeding was delight
fully farcical.
"Then can tell you, gentlemen" said the
doctor, stifiiy, "that they were in Monterey
last night, that they did not return on that
trail this morning, and that they must have
passed here at daybreak."
With these words, which the doctor re-
GREETED as soon as delivered, the party rode
away.
Mr.. Roscommon resumed his service and
counter wiping. But late that n 1t, when
the bar was closed and the last leiterer was
summarily elected, Mr. Roscofr1mon, in the
conjugal privacy of his chamber produced
a legal looking paper. "Read it, Maggie
darlint, for it's meself never had the farming
nor the parts"
Mistress Roscommon took the paper:
SShure, it's law papers, making over some
to yis. o Moike. ye hav'n't been
@Whist. and fwhotz that durty gray paper
wild the sales and nourishes!"
@Faix, it bothers me intoircly. Shure it
oin't in English"
"Whist! Maggie, it's a Spanish grant,"
"A Spanish grant: Moike, and what did